development

• brain dev

  • Brain development begins during 3rd week of pregnancy
  • The neural plate folders over to form the neural tube, which then divides into spinal cord, forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain.
  • During the sixth week the forebrain divides into the cortex and the thalamus.
  • In the sixth week neurons and synapses begin to develop in the spinal cord. The brain stem connects the brain and spinal cord to each other.
  • By the fifteenth week, the cerebellum is formed from the hindbrain.

  By the 6th month of pregnancy, the brain is fully formed. At birth, the brain is approximately 25% of its adult size.
• w of piaget's theory

  • Research evidence that suggests Piaget underestimated children’s abilities e.g. Hughes ‘policeman doll’ study, or McGarrigle’s naughty teddy study.
  •  Piaget’s theory is unlikely to be representative of all children. Piaget developed his theory using a small sample of children (his own). They were middle class and from Switzerland. This means his findings may not tell us about the cognitive development of children from different social classes or cultures.
• s of piaget's theory

  • application to education -
  • Piaget suggested that children should be taught in a more child-centred way in which the teacher should provide materials like bulbs and wires to make a circuit and allow the child to discover.
  • Students should use concrete objects in order to learn in maths and science . For exmaple, presenting children with strings and weights to complete the pendulum tasks
  • Research evidence e.g. Piaget’s own evidence using his own children to investigate these stages
  • Evidence of development over time in set stages (even in McGarrigle and Donaldson/Hughes)
• the term nature refers to things that you have inherited, which are present from the moment that first cell is formed.

  The term nurture refers to any other influences such as the kind of home we grew up in, our teachers and friends, what we eat, and good and bad experiences we may have had.

  Most of the way that your brain forms is due to nature but not all. The actual physical shape of the brain and its folds are not the same in identical twins. Chance events affect the brain as it grows - experience in the womb counts as 'nurture'.
• Assimilation is adding new information to an existing schema whilst accommodation is changing a schema or developing a new schema to cope with a new situation. For example, if you are learning about animals and you see a bigger or smaller dog than ones you have seen before, this can easily be assimilated because it is similar to what you know. However, if you saw a cat for the first time you would need to accommodate this information by creating a new schema about cats.
• Piaget's study of egocentrism

  Piaget demonstrated how young children display egocentrism in his three mountains task. He showed that most children under the age of 7 can only think in terms of their own personal perspective. From the age of 7 onwards they develop the ability to decentre or see the world from multiple viewpoints.
• policeman

  his aim was to investigate egocentrism

  hughes tested 30 children aged 3-5 years old. they were shown a model with 2 intersecting walls. Hughes put a doll in each section and asked if the policeman could see the boy doll.

  90% of the children were able to position the boy doll where two policeman could not 'see' him.

  not egocentric at 4. However, there did continue to be age differences, which suggests that Piaget was right in his view that the way that children think changes with age.
• Neural tube: Develops first and then splits into more complex neural structures Brain stem: Controls autonomic functions e.g. breathing

  Cerebellum: Responsible for co-ordination and movement

  Thalamus: Signal hub, sensory processing

  Cortex: Two hemispheres responsible for many regions and functions, with the main role being cognition
• Sensorimotor: 0-2, object permanence

  Preoperational: 2-7, egocentrism

  Concrete Operational: 7-11, conservation

  Formal Operational 11+, abstract and logical thinking
• Visualisers: visual learners learn best through images.

  Verbalisers: auditory learners learn best through speaking and listening.

  Kinaesthetic: those who need to be hands on in order to learn

  Strength: teachers who adopt a variety of learning styles improve class outcomes

  Limitation: Three learning styles cannot explain all learners.
• To see if children younger than 7 can conserve.

  they were presented with 2 rows of counters. A 'naughty teddy' messed up a row. "Which row has more counters, or are they the same?"

  68% could conserve in the naughty teddy condition (41% in Piaget study).

  This study shows that Piaget underestimated what children can do. In this study, many of the 4yrs did conserve quantity. Piaget said that children of this age couldn't. However, there were still age differences. The 5yrs did better overall than the 4yrs. This supports Piaget's idea that children's thinking changes as they get older.
• evaluation of police

  One strength of this study is that the task used to test egocentrism made better sense. much easier to think about whether you could hide from someone else.

  Hughes made sure that the children understood what they had to do - in the three mountains task the children might have got it wrong because they didn't understand the task.

  One weakness is that the researcher may have unconsciously hinted about the correct answer.Researchers sometimes do this without realising they are giving such clues, for example gazing in a certain direction.
• evaluation of teddy

  One weakness is that the primary age children all came from one school. The reason the primary children did better than the nursery children might be due to differences in educational background.

  This suggests that it might not be reasonable to compare the two groups of children because other factors could explain the differences. This challenges the validity of the conclusions.

  Culturally biased sample - Participants were only from a small area of Edinburgh and so the results were not reflective of all children.
• Fixed mindset

  People with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence (or any of their abilities) is fixed in their genes. Winning prizes or doing well in a test is evidence of their ability.

  People with a fixed mindset don't believe they should have to work hard at their schoolwork - if you have to work hard then you can't really be that talented. So, if you aren't doing well, you might as well give up. No amount of effort will change the situation.

  People with a fixed mindset are focused on performance goals. They feel good when they are doing well.
• Growth mindset

  People with a growth mindset believe at any time you can always get a little bit better. That doesn't necessarily mean you will become the best but you can become better if you work at it.

  People with a growth mindset believe in effort and actually enjoy being challenged and not always succeeding.

  People with a growth mindset are focused on learning goals. They feel good when they are working hard.
• someone with a fixed mindset, failure is a sign that they are not as talented as they thought they were. Since they don't believe success is about effort, there is no point in trying. When a person with a growth mindset fails they often regard this as a great opportunity to learn more and overcome the obstacle.
• Process praise- praising people for effort put into a task.

  Person praise- praising for intelligence/ability

  Process praise makes students more likely to try new challenges and could lead to a growth mindset; personal praise makes students more likely to choose easy tasks to look smart so this could lead to a fixed mindset.
• ev of dweck

  Research evidence- E.g. Dweck conducted a study with 48 low-achieving 12-13yrs; when students were taught about growth mindsets (that intelligence can grow like a muscle that is exercised) compared to just a normal session on memory, results showed that their grades and their motivation had improved. 

  Practical applications - Dweck has shown how the type of praise given by teachers can affect the mindsets of students, and how students can improve their grades

  Problems with any form of praise- acts as extrinsic satisfaction rather than intrinsic motivation
• willlingham's learning theory

  learning should be tailored to fit the subject, e.g. if teaching art then it needs to be done visually.

  Praise should be unexpected

  Cues are helpful to recall info

  Self-regulation: Linked with better school progress

  • Practical applications-  Willingham’s work can be applied to education to enhance learning, therefore his theory has real world value. 
  • Willingham’s ideas are backed up by valid scientific evidence which is replicable meaning his theory is reliable and valid